Is there a "hack" to make the new iMac boot OS 9?

I would have thought that many folks would have tried this by now, but I can't find any information regarding this.
Is it technically possible for the new iMac (2003) to boot OS 9? Is it just "disabled" in Open Firmware? Or is the ROM chip simply not capable of seeing OS 9 as bootable?
Any info would help, as I know people who want the new iMac, but need to boot OS 9. Please don't ask me why....
Ofcourse it's possible to get a second hand iMac 2002....

It's a financial problem.... not mine personally, luckily. Only next year they will have the money to go and buy OS X native apps, but are now using Office 98, FileMaker Pro 5 and a couple of small Appletalk-using OS 9-apps. Alot of the programs used by them are crap under "Classic-in OS X" Many screendraw problems and stuff.
Too bad.

But tnx for your reply and info! It was the answer I was looking for. It is hardware (ROM chip) related so to speak.

Originally posted by puffmarvin why but a new imac when youre having financial difficulties anyways? why not wait until next year when you say theyll have the money and buy it all in one fell swoop?!

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That was generally the idea... but sometimes old Mac's break down, or need replacement one way or the other. It's all bad timing, really.
It's not a huge problem right now, but I was wondering if somebody had done it (I was hoping a Open Firmware hack), and that would have made life just a little easier, that's all.
But tnx fot your replies, anyway.

Originally posted by sparks9 Dammit man, why do you want to boot os 9, it sucks. You have to move on to x....

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you can't get on somebody's case for needing a 9 boot. no one *wants* to boot 9. we all know it blows. some people simply do not have a choice, usually for work reasons. personally, i feel the pain and i jump back into X whenever i get the chance but i still need to be in 9 about 90% of the time. looks like it will be this way for maybe another year (let's hpoe not) until my software finally gets ported to X. this pain in my ass is also keeping me from buying a new machine. i'm in the market for a shiny new aluminum portable but since i need a 9 boot i'll have to look to ebay for last year's TiBook. it bites. hopefully by next year we'll all be on 970s running a 64 bit OS.

Originally posted by sparks9 Dammit man, why do you want to boot os 9, it sucks. You have to move on to x....

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Like tjwett said: it's a have-to situation, not a want-to. I agree, let's all move on to Mac OS X..... that'll be great. But unfortunately some companies can't afford the transition right away. It's not the OS, but the apps running native on OS X which makes the move expensive. But next year will be the year.

A friend of mine had a problem with his TiBook - he'd gone off to film in the Gulf for a few months (apparently there was something going on over there), and he'd lent his computer to a friend of his for safe keeping. When he came back, all of his privileges had been screwed up, and he was unable to log in as the administrator.

I tried all of the basic things for him - booted up via the OSX Install CD and reset the password (he became admin again, but STILL couldn't access the files), and fixed the disk privileges in the disk utilities section of the CD as well - all to no avail. I even reinstalled OSX.2 - but the account remained locked.

The solution?

Boot into OS9, and physically go through "users" folder to the files, manually removing them to another drive - and then reinstalling OSX.2 on a clean disk.

It was the only thing I could think of - since I don't know a STITCH of Unix.

I think THAT'S the primary reason that Apple don't want new computers to boot into OS9 - it's a backdoor into your file systems. If someone was to boot in using OS9, none of your files would be safe...

Spooky...

However, since I'm the only one who uses my computer, it's not an issue for me.

Originally posted by kiwi_the_iwik I'm actually quite happy to have the ability boot into OS9...

Point in case:

A friend of mine had a problem with his TiBook - he'd gone off to film in the Gulf for a few months (apparently there was something going on over there), and he'd lent his computer to a friend of his for safe keeping. When he came back, all of his privileges had been screwed up, and he was unable to log in as the administrator.

I tried all of the basic things for him - booted up via the OSX Install CD and reset the password (he became admin again, but STILL couldn't access the files), and fixed the disk privileges in the disk utilities section of the CD as well - all to no avail. I even reinstalled OSX.2 - but the account remained locked.

The solution?

Boot into OS9, and physically go through "users" folder to the files, manually removing them to another drive - and then reinstalling OSX.2 on a clean disk.

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This is a good argument to keep the root user enabled. If you can log in as root, you have the same level of access as you have in OS 9. More, even. You can even delete the kernel while the system is running. Just wait until it runs out of what is loaded in memory...

Seriously, though, root access can even be achieved from the terminal, and files can be copied from there, too. It's really worth learning a little Unix if you want to help people with their Macs running OS X.

Originally posted by Snowy_River
Seriously, though, root access can even be achieved from the terminal, and files can be copied from there, too. It's really worth learning a little Unix if you want to help people with their Macs running OS X.

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Absolutely true. And once you get used to working in the terminal, you can help the people remotely via SSH aswell. Just one of the gr8 powers of OS X above OS 9.

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